Space Cats Peace Turtles

Our Super Faction Guide schedule has been shaken up a bit and a part of that is because the Empyrean one was just so dang easy to right we were able to get it out ahead of schedule. Hunter loves these ding dang bat-folk and honestly not a WHOLE LOT has changed since our Introduction to the faction. We have some things we feel you can rely on less, but mostly have fun getting rich and not dying eas...

We've been doing our part as historical record keepers recently by looking back and previous editions of Twilight Imperium and noting how the game has changed over time. Today, we'd like to dig deep with you and walk through 1st Edition's life-cycle. What are the Twilight Imperium "fundamentals" and what has been tossed out over the decades? For tickets to our GenCon Live Show, visit https://india...

The Galactic Council gave us permission to goof around this week and we couldn't be happier. We get to combine our two loves: Root and Twilight Imperium. Our task? To take a Root faction and distill it's essence into a crystal then smash that crystal against a treasure chest, open the treasure chest, and pull out a Twilight Imperium faction. We wanted to do this really earnestly, okay? But then re...

We're back with more Spirit Island! It's exciting to continue exploring this game and this week we're both tackling potentially more complex factions. But stick around after for plenty of TI talk, including another round of Prelims Reports! I did it three weeks in a row everybody! A new record! 0:00 - Errata for 290 (Spirit Guides - Vital Strength of Earth and Thunderspeaker) 13:49 - Ocean's Hungr...

This week we got distracted and decided to run with it. We couldn't stop thinking about how we haven't seen a Codex yet this year and we just wanted to sit and dream up what sort of potential there could be to more Twilight Imperium content. We've done wishlists before, but this is a bit more off the cuff. Also we don't necessarily agree on most points, so come join us for a back and forth discuss...

Since PoK, we've had two player counts that have gone relatively unexplored by this show. We change 50% of that today! We're talking about some of our recent 7 player games and our takeaways about the differences between 6 and 7 player (with some healthy chat about 5 player games sprinkled in). Also, there is a whole segment about Magi's Madness, the 7 player asymmetric map released in Codex 2 ( h...

This was a live recording of the Space Cats Peace Turtles Portland Hootenanny Liveshow at Helium Comedy Club on March 22, including opening act Old Gamer's Almanac! Featuring: E.J. Sanders, Jamie Carbone, Steven Wilber, Katie Nguyen, Aaron Harleman, and Sun Sanders! Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Mer...

We're in full prep and travel mode for our Portland live show and Hootenanny, but we have a special treat for you! We've been a part of a couple of "Fog of War" games recently and decided to bring resident Fog of War Weird Bear Correspondent Brassbird in to help us make sense of this very odd game mode. It's an adventurous, cutthroat, thematic way to play and there are a number of ways to try it o...

NEW GAME NEW THEME. We've dabbled in Spirit Island as a show so far, but it's time to fully take the plunge. We've been practicing as some specific factions and we now come to you as two novices hoping to help you get started with two of the base game factions Vital Strength of the Earth and Thunderspeaker. Some of you definitely know more of us, but this episode is primarily geared to the people...

It's time to get back to trusty ol' faithful. Argent Flight just have a lot of things that make sense and go well together. Despite that, they've actually had a bit of a rocky history in competitive play. However, that rockiness is generally in relation to wins, but not necessarily total points scored. That's right, it's time to talk about how to reliably not stall out at 9 points as one of the mo...

The Galactic Council finally got to vote on an episode again and they've chosen a very very odd one. Hunter and Matt are not ethicists or philosophers and yet we are tasked with ranking the 25 TI factions on the basis of their morality. Some of this will be based on their established lore, but some of it will be based on mechanical and strategic implications. Anyways, this is really stupid and ple...

Hey look! It's a really good faction. That doesn't mean we can't sit around for 2 hours and talk about the "best" ways to win games as the Naaz-Rokha Alliance. Sometimes it's fun to crush your opponents with friendship and kindness, okay? Open your heart up to kissing that little goblin on your back. 0:00 - Component Overview 40:29 - Strengths and Technology 1:16:41 - Economics 1:32:30 Round 1 Str...

One project we wanted to tackle this year on the show was doing more to explore the history of this game we know and love. So to start that journey, we wanted to learn to properly play Twilight Imperium: First Edition from way back in 1997. It's the game that launched this franchise as well as Fantasy Flight Games as a company and we were curious how many elements are central parts of the TI DNA....

Listen, y'all. I don't know what to tell you. Sometimes you've got questions and we've got answers. Sometimes we ask questions because we secretly have answers we think are clever. And sometimes Matt asks a question thinking he'll find an answer along the way and that answer never really turn up. The concept of "the midgame" is referred to in a lot of our commentary and faction guides, but it's ha...

Prepare to KNEEL! It's been two years since we last approached the topic of Mahact, and so much about our understanding of Prophecy of Kings has changed. So it's time to set the record straight, especially as we've seen Mahact's win-rate skyrocket in the last year or so. What makes this faction so complicated and how can you best control the reins? 0:00 - Mahact Component Introduction 40:53 - Prob...

It's our first strategic foray into Spirit Island, but we're still rookies over here. But we've got a good grasp on how the game is played now and we'd like to relay our experience of learning the game to you. Hopefully we can provide some tips to getting started but mostly we want you to not be intimidated by the many many words that Spirit Island is going to throw at you. But stick around if Spi...

There's no codex or expansion or rules FAQ. Sometimes we just want to talk to our friend Dane and learn more about him and force him to be our friend. And we figured you all would want to be his friend to, so you get to listen in as we chat about his roots in board game designing, his love of Final Fantasy, and we also force him to answer a whole slew of strange TI design questions! It's a fun epi...

We've taught you how to learn this game and how to teach this game, but we've never taught you the proper way to set it up! So today is a treat for relatively new players or players looking to change up their faction drafting and map building as well as different tools to help enhance the Twilight Imperium experience. We've got tips, tricks, and herbal supplements to get you feeling 150%!! 0:00 -...

It's a new year! Our custom 'round these parts is to use this time to take stock of how the last year of episode and Patron bonuses went and what we can do going forward. This year is very little change in how things operate on the Patreon, but some big changes coming your way for the show. And part of those changes was our desire to hash out the next slew of episodes with you in the room and then...

We played a game on Dec 27 2022. There were 7 of us. That game should be on Youtube. It was a good game! You should go watch it. This episode is what we recorded right after that game, when we were all quite tired. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, we love you, see you in Tournament 5! Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   To learn more about our D...

And you all thought we'd learned to listen to you. HA! Don't forget who steers this ship. There are only two opinions that matter and they are ours and they are absolute. You are just lucky enough that we grace you with our guidance and thoughts! Our yearly faction ranking is here and it has never been more correct than this... Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benpr...

December had two Galactic Council polls, the latter of which was for us to feature ANOTHER non-Twilight Imperium board game. They chose the space negotiation game Sidereal Confluence. It's a wild, non-violent game about slinging cubes and makin' deals as fast as you can before there's no deals left to make. But the bigger question is how would SCPT cover a game with so much math and interpersonal...

The first of your two December Galactic Council episodes is another opportunity for us to make a list of demands for Dane before the holidays. The dust from Codex 3 is beginning to settle, and rather than be happy with what we've got, it's time to beg for more delicious board game content. So we sat down and thought through what we'd most like to see in another Codex if Dane were ever to make anot...

THERE'S IMPORTANT BUSINESS TO TEND TO. The Tournament 5 Signups email is going out December 10 at 20:00 UTC. This is to all members of our Patreon who were active during the months of October and November. We also detail our hopeful schedule for this year's tournament and what everyone can expect. Then it's time to have fun. The Galactic Council wanted us to play Spirit Island, and I bet only a fe...

Matt's been playing games with the Homebrewer's Guild this year and he had a very specific project in mind. Today's episode is a sort of Abstract of the findings of that project. We were after a sort of "Tournament Mode" or some set of rules that could shake up that conventional Tempo of a game of Twilight Imperium without too much rules overhead. Was any of it successful? Well here's your report....